how old when was your child aloud to play on the computer?

Well, when you say play on the computer, I include computer games as well as the internet. We let my son play preschool games on the computer when he was 3. He had a real interest in learning to use the mouse, so I worked with him and helped him at first until he learned how to move the mouse and click for himself. As far as the internet, he received the Fisher Price easy link internet launch pad when he was 4. It's a little thing that you plug into the computer and you have little characters that you can plug in like Thomas, Elmo, and Bob the Builder. Whichever you character you plug in, it brings you to that web site. It's convenient because he can only go to those web pages and can't exit the program without a password. When he gets older, we will set up an internet lock so that he can only go to certain web sites. I know we started him on the computer early, but he is definitely taking after me and his father as far as being into computers and video games.

My son started playing on the computer at the age of 3. I used to be addicted to the neopets site and that is where he always used to play and then it moved to computer games and now he plays on the family channel site, treehouse site, Lego site, and a few others but I ALWAYS monitor him since he is only 5 almost 6 he isn't able to read enough for me to worry about him getting onto sites that are full of stuff that is not for little eyes but I still watch no matter what. I also limit his Internet time because he tends to get into the mood of crying when he loses if he is on for long periods of time. but yea I don't think there is any real set age to let your child use the computer as long as you are monitoring what they are accessing

My son is 8 years old. He has been playing on the computer since he was about 3 years old. At 3 he could turn on the computer, open up internet explorer, click on favorites and find his sites that I had bookmarked for him, play his game, and close internet explorer and shut down the computer. At age 8 he plays on nicks website, cartoon network, disney, and a few other game sites like toon town and club penguin.

My kids are older than your, dmcollie, since my youngest is 12 and I didn't have the internet at home until he was 9. He started off on educational sites and a kids magazine site that had games and competitions. Except for when my kids play Runescape, they don't really "play" on the computer as they have an Xbox, PS2 and Nintendo DS's to play on. They get regular turns on the computer, in which they surf, email, research and use Messenger but, since the computer is in the lounge room, where I can see what they are doing, I don't have any strict rules as to what sites they can't go to, other than MySpace, which I have forbidden. My youngest did go to a "jokes" site but, when I read the sorts of jokes that were on the site, I made him close out of it. My boys understand that using the internet is a privilege and if they abuse it, they will be banned.

My son was 6 when I let him use my computer...

My Niece and Nephew come over off and on to play on my pc and even though they are 11 and 13 I still don't let them near it alone. There are way too many sicko's out there just waiting for another kid to come along.

**AT PEACE WITHIN**

~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~

I start to made them use the computer when they was 8years old too, it is the age of good learning just playing games on the computer, but when they be in 10 years old I make them go on the net on choosing site I choose for them and they now surfing on the net and playing online games, but all that under my watching we must watch them all the time and teach them the good way to use the internet to have more knowledge.

My kids have all been playing on the computer since they were 5. I monitor all sites they go to on the internet and they know what games they can and cannot play on my computer. So I guess if they are well monitored no age is too early to let them play on the computer. Especially, with the wy the world is brought up today on technology. My 9 year old daughter had Tech class in the 1st grade when she was 6. I guess it's all about preference on if your kids should be older or not. All I know is that the kids are learning more and more about computers in school everyday. Thanks for the post:D